


Where the Wild Things Are (Donde Viven Los Monstruos)

by aworldofmyimagination



Category: Logan (2017) - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wolverine (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Logan Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-09-28 11:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10097450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aworldofmyimagination/pseuds/aworldofmyimagination
Summary: Fix-It Logan Road Trip AU. Featuring attempted snow camping, Logan doing his best to learn Spanish, and the long, long drive to Eden (with several pit-stops on the way).





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The mushy “everyone lives” road trip AU that really wouldn’t have worked in the movie but I desperately need - and isn’t that why we have fan fiction? Picks up at the Munson’s farm as Logan comes back from the almost-fight at the water pump.

Logan hadn’t shaken the feeling of restlessness for well over a year - and especially not since they had left on this road trip to nowhere - but something prickled at the back of his neck as they returned to the farmhouse.

“Thanks for your help back there,” Will said. “How in the hell you did it, I have no clue, but thanks.”

Logan hardly acknowledged him, instead staring up at the window of the guest room where Charles and Laura were staying.

“We have to go,” Logan said, already walking towards the house. “We were never here, do you understand me? You and your family should leave, now.”

“But it’s the middle of the night!”

Logan ignored Will, the feeling getting stronger as he entered the house. His claws slowly slid out between his knuckles without a conscious thought. He wasn’t too late, he told himself, he couldn’t be. There hadn’t been a scream, no scent of blood hanging in the air, and he could hear Mrs. Munson chatting on the phone in the master bedroom. Still, when he opened the door to see Charles in bed and Laura lying on the rug, listening to some ruckus he supposed counted as music through her headphones, he had to lean against the wall. His claws slowly retracted.

They couldn’t waste any time, though, not even until morning. He carefully stepped around Laura - no reason to wake her before Charles was in the car - and leaned over Charles to shake him awake.

“Tonight was the most perfect night I’ve had in a very long time,” Charles whispered, awake before Logan had even stepped in the room. “And I don’t-” his voice broke. “And I don’t deserve it, Logan. I’ve remembered what happened in Westchester.”

“Charles-” Logan began.

“I’ve remembered, Logan, I-I-”

“I know. I know. We’ve got to go, do you understand? We already stayed too long.”

Charles just shook his head, shaking. They didn’t have time for another seizure. Not when they had to leave now.

Laura was still lying on the floor, but her eyes were open and she was staring at Logan. When she noticed him looking back, she sat up. A headphone had fallen out.

“Did he take the pills? In the last hour?”

Laura nodded. Logan grabbed the bottle from the bag and shoved another two pills in Charles’ hand anyway.

“We’re going.”

Laura just nodded again. When Logan glanced back to Charles, the man was still shaking, staring at the pills in his hand. Logan swore under his breath.

“Charles, you have to take them.”

Charles shook his head again.

“Look, if you remember what happened at Westchester, you know why you need the pills,” Logan said harshly, but they didn’t have time to coax the professor into taking them. “Take them now, Charles, and stop skipping the damn things.”

Charles shook even harder at that, shaking his head again, but he took the pills. Logan picked him up, nodding to Laura to follow.

“Get the chair,” he told her as he continued towards the truck. He could see a line of bright headlights on the freeway in the distance and swore again.

“Laura!” he shouted, shoving the professor into the back seat.

The girl appeared, dragging the wheelchair. Logan picked up Laura with one arm and the wheelchair in the other. The headlights kept getting closer. He swung the chair into the back of the truck and got in the driver’s side door, pushing Laura over to the passenger seat. Before he even closed the door he had started the car and floored the gas. The cornfield - he could cut across and find a road on the other side, hopefully take enough exits until they lost Alkali Transigen again.

Charles was still shaking in the back. Had the dose been high enough to handle this? If he had an episode out here with the line of trucks on their tail they wouldn’t escape again.

“Charles, I need you to calm down. Okay? Calm down. Now.”

If anything, he shook harder. Laura had taken out both her headphones and was looking back at the professor.

“Laura,” Logan said. She looked at him. “He can’t have another seizure. Get back there and, I don’t know, give him a hug or something. Alright? You know what a hug is?”

They made it past the massive machines. Laura scrambled to the back - when Logan looked over his shoulder to see what she was doing, a huge explosion roared up back at the farm. He couldn’t help but feel relieved Pierce’s men would be distracted long enough for them to make a getaway alongside the guilt that the Munsons had been drug into their mess.

They finally hit a road. Logan had no clue where it led, but they had to hit a freeway at some point, and if he didn’t know where they were going hopefully Pierce didn’t either. Laura was holding onto Charles’ hand. The man was staring at the window now, no longer shaking, but the look in his eyes was almost worse. Logan started to say something, but instead grit his teeth together and forced the gas pedal down as far as it would go.

XXX

Three hours down the road, Charles had finally fallen asleep. Laura climbed back to the front and looked out the window. The sun was just barely peeking over the mountains in the distance.

“Hey,” Logan said. Laura looked at him. “Thanks for, you know,” he gestured vaguely towards the professor’s sleeping form.

“De nada,” Laura said so quietly Logan almost missed it.

“Wait,” Logan said. “Wait - you can talk? The fu-why didn’t you say anything before?”

Laura just shrugged.

“You shy or something?”

Laura was silent for a long while.

“No podemos ir a Eden,” she finally said. “Not until they stop following us.”

“We weren’t going to Eden anyways. It’s just from a comic book, you understand? It’s not real.”

“It is,” Laura insisted. “Pero no estamos seguros. We’re not safe.”


	2. Chapter 2

They didn’t pull off until they hit Yellowstone. Logan stopped at a dingy little camp store gas station and bought a tent, three toothbrushes, and half the food in the store.

“Might be a bit too cold for camping,” the cashier said with a cheerful smile. “We’ve got a big blizzard coming in later this week - no one will be able to get in or out for days. Even the lodges are empty. Just the locals. No one wants to go skiing and get stuck in a storm.”

Logan glanced meaningfully back at Charles and Laura. Laura was still wearing her sunglasses as she looked at the sleeping bags and Charles had never looked more frail.

“Might be my dad’s last winter,” Logan said. “He always wanted to come up here - family trip, you know? And we just never got around to it. The docs said it won’t be long until he can’t travel at all. Mind adding three sleeping bags? A pink one, if you’ve got it. And, uh, you got any books on Spanish?”

XXX

Now that Laura had started talking, she wouldn’t shut up.

“Esta muy frío,” Laura complained. “Too cold. El profesor is too cold.”

Logan had to admit she was right. When the cashier had said blizzard, she meant blizzard. Logan had lived for far longer in far colder environments, but Laura had likely never left Mexico (how much time had she even spent outside?) and Charles was too old to camp in the snow. Logan had tried to make an igloo, but there was too much snow and not enough ice.

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Pronto.”

He found a ranger’s cabin, abandoned for the winter but fully stocked. It even had heat and electricity and cell service, with a decent enough couch and a TV.

“Happy now?” he asked Laura.

“El profesor no está hablando.”

“Yeah, I know he’s not talking,” Logan said, just a bit proud that he had read over the tiny Spanish-to-English dictionary well enough he could understand her. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure something out.”

Another three days passed and Charles still hadn’t opened his mouth.

“La tele no se enciende. It won’t turn on.”

“The remote needs new batteries. In the kitchen, probably,” Logan said, lying across the couch with his eyes closed. Laura was perched on Charles’ wheelchair - her favorite spot, apparently - and Charles was in the recliner, staring at the snow falling outside the window.

“No puedo encontrarlos!” Laura called from the kitchen.

“Mira en, um, the drawers,” Logan called back. “And don’t eat all the food! No todos comidas!”

“Pero tengo hambre!”

“That should’ve been enough food to last a month!”

“Tengo _hambre_!”

There was a snowmobile around back. It wouldn’t hold as much as the truck, but it would have to do.

“I’ll be back tonight. Esta noche. Make sure el profesor takes his medicina.”

It was a different cashier working, a boy with headphones in who just nodded to Logan when he walked in the door. Logan loaded up on as much food as the snowmobile would carry. There were a few old DVDs on clearance in the back, so he picked up every Disney movie and western on the rack.

There was a tiny town a few miles down the road with a bookstore that seemed to double as a pharmacy. The woman at the counter accepted Logan’s feeble excuse about why he didn’t have a prescription and let him load up on a half a year’s worth of medicine for the professor. It might have had something to do with the cash he was offering and the sign out front nearly falling off the hooks. A section of textbooks caught his eye. What sort of education had Laura even had? If any? Could she even read? The ball of anger at Transigen that had been there ever since he had seen that video - ever since he realized they had created his daughter and tortured her for, what, ten years? twelve? - flared up again. He grabbed every textbook through eighth grade on the shelf, along with every kids book in Spanish, and loaded them onto the snowmobile.

“You can teach her, can’t you, Charles?” Logan asked later that night, an hour after Laura had gone to bed. “Charles, look at me. You can’t drop out now, alright? You can’t. We can’t. Laura needs us. Needs you. I need you.”

“They needed me,” Charles whispered. “And I let them down. In the worst way imaginable.”

“I know, Charles. But all we can do now is move forward. You got me into this, remember? We’re helping Laura. Saving her. But I can’t do it without you.”

“I don’t...I don’t know if I can.”

“Too bad. You’re a professor. Laura needs professor-ing. I got some books at the store today. You can teach her, can’t you? Laura doesn’t want us to go to Eden anymore, not with Pierce after us, so it sounds like we’ve got a while with her. No way I’m letting my daughter sit around watching movies all day when she should be in school.”

Charles smiled slowly. He reached out to put a hand on Logan’s shoulder. “Bring me those books and I’ll get her started in the morning.”

XXX

“No quiero,” Laura said for the hundredth time the next day, shaking her head. It was just starting to get dark and they had been having this argument all day. “No.”

“Laura, learning is good,” Charles said, also for the hundredth time.

“Es bueno,” Logan echoed.

“No quiero.”

“Laura,” Logan finally shouted. “If you don’t sit down with the professor and let him teach you for at least twenty minutes you’re going to bed without supper. No aprender, no comida, sí?”

“No quiero.”

“Laura. Ahora.”

She shook her head again, so Logan picked her up and marched her to the bedroom. Laura kicked and cried and how much sleep was she even getting? And did she need to brush her teeth? And-

Logan’s knees hit the side of the bed and he plopped Laura down. She wasn’t crying anymore, just staring at him angrily.

“No aprender, no comida,” Logan repeated. “Just...go to sleep. Dormir. Ahora.”

He turned and left then, because if he stayed he might give in. Was he really going to send her to bed without supper? He knew how much she ate. But he wasn’t going to let her sit on her butt watching movies and listening to her headphones for the rest of her life. If she was this stubborn now, what would she be like as a teenager?

Logan froze, then. No. She’d be off his hands by the time she was a teenager, wouldn’t she? She’d be- somewhere, and he and Charles would buy their boat and once Charles died Logan would-

“I never thought I’d see the day,” Charles said, interrupting Logan’s train of thought. Charles was grinning, his eyes bright.

“Shut up.”

“I remember when I used to send the students back at Westchester to bed without supper,” Charles said fondly. Logan tensed - would this set off another long episode? - but Charles continued. “I always knew you brought them food, especially when you were involved in their mischief. I’m off to make a few more lesson plans before bed. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have better luck.”

Logan stared out the window for nearly an hour before he gave in. He poured three cans of soup in a bowl and put it in the microwave. He grabbed two bottles of water, a roll of crackers, and a can of Pringles.

Laura was asleep when he creaked open the door to the bedroom. Still, he set it on the floor next to the bed and closed the door quietly behind him. When he checked on her before he went to bed three hours later, the food was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Logan hadn’t seen Charles so energetic in years. He was even better than the months before the Westchester incident, likely because he actually had medicine and was taking it on time. Charles had, of course, read the entire Spanish-English dictionary and was far more at ease than Logan within just a few days. Charles and Laura had entire conversations in Spanish as Logan did his best to keep up.

Laura seemed to really enjoy her lessons, once she agreed to learn. Math came naturally to her, and she could name every planet in order in one breath (and often did at random times). She could read, mostly, but stuck to the books with pictures. Logan wasn’t sure whether it was because she couldn’t read that well or because she’d never had a book with pictures before, apart from a couple comics. He wasn’t a fan of either reason.

“You should read to her,” Charles told Logan two weeks later. “Studies show that a parent reading to their child helps stimulate their mind.”

“Laura doesn’t want me to read to her.”

“Of course she does. Just try.”

Later that night, after supper, they sat on the couch watching the news. Logan hated it, but they were so cut off from the world at the cabin that they needed to know what was going on somehow. Laura was staring at her favorite book again, gazing at the pictures more than reading the words.

“Do you, uh,” Logan began gruffly. “Do you want me to read? To you? Leer libro?”

Laura looked at him for a while. She nodded slowly and moved to sit beside Logan.

“Alright, what’ve you got?” Logan asked, putting on his glasses. “ _Where the Wild Things Are_?”

“ _Donde Viven Los Monstruos_ ,” Laura nodded. “Por favor. Please.”

Logan adjusted his glasses and started to read. “The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another his mother called him ‘WILD THING!’ and Max said ‘I’LL EAT YOU UP!’...”

Charles smiled from the recliner as Logan stumbled through the book, trying to keep from coughing. 

“...and when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws…”

“Garras terribles,” Laura echoed, looking down at her hands.

Logan caught Charles’ eyes. Was this really Laura’s favorite book? Was that healthy?

“...And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all…”

Laura leaned her head against Logan’s shoulder as he finished the book.

“Soy una cosa salvaje,” Laura said. “I am a wild thing.”

“Me too,” Logan finally said. “Aren’t we all?”

XXX

It never took long to get Charles to bed anymore, with how long they had been doing it. Laura was even faster, though, and by the time he had Charles settled and went to make sure Laura was in bed in the other room, she was under the covers. Logan grabbed another blanket from the closet and set it on her.

“Another storm rolling in tonight.”

“Gracias.”

Logan turned to set up camp on the couch, but the sight of a Bible on the nightstand made him pause. He didn’t exactly make time for church, but it was important for his daughter to know about God, wasn’t it?

“Do you, uh, say prayers? I have no clue how to say that in Spanish. Um, grace?” Logan mimicked folding his hands together and gestured to the Bible.

Laura shook her head. “What are prayers?”

“When you, you know, talk to God? Hablar God? Jesús? Here, um, look.”

Logan opened the Bible. A verse was written on the inside cover - ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’

“Can you read that?” Logan asked, repeating the verse out loud for her.

“So God, you know, watches over you. And when you pray you talk to, uh, hablar God, tell him about your problems - problemas - and your life and God, um, listens. Escuchar. And helps. Ayu-something.”

“Ayuda.”

“Yeah. Sí,” Logan said. “So you can just hablar God whenever you need to. Or want to. And we can pray together at night. Noche. Do you want me to, uh, show you?”

“Sí.”

“Okay. You just fold your hands, like this,” Logan carefully grasped Laura’s hands to fold them together. “And close your eyes. Cerrar ojos. And just say what you’re thankful for and what you need help with. Que gracias and que ayuda. I can, uh, go first. So, um, hey God. It’s Logan. Gracias for Laura and Charles and this cabin. Por favor ayuda Laura learn, aprender, lots tomorrow. So, uh, do you want to go now?”

Laura was quiet for a few moments before she started. “Hola God, es Laura. Gracias por el profesor y mi daddy. Por favor ayúdenos a mantenerse a salvo. Please help us stay safe.”

Logan’s heart started pounding in his chest as soon as he heard Laura call him her dad. They sat in silence for a few moments before he realized Laura wasn’t talking anymore. “And when you finish, you just say amen. Decir amen. It just means you’re done, I guess.”

“Amen,” Laura said.

“Amen,” Logan echoed. “I’ll see you in the morning, yeah? Get some sleep.” He paused to tuck the covers over Laura’s shoulders, brushed a quick kiss against her temple, and took a deep breath. “How do you say ‘I love you best of all’ in Spanish?”

“Te amo más que a nadie,” Laura said quietly.

“Te amo más que a nadie, Laura. Buenas noches.”


	4. Chapter 4

“You see this alarm?” Logan held up the phone and set it back on the counter. "Every time it goes off you take your pills. Okay? And call me when you do, because I've got another alarm on my phone five minutes after yours so I'll know if you don't check in."

“I'm not completely invalid yet, Logan,” Charles said, exasperated. “That's the ninth time you've told me. You and Laura go have fun in town. The poor girl’s been cooped up here for a month.”

“Your phone is charged? Teléfono? And you have your blanket, right? We’ll get you some decent snow clothes in town. You need to stay right near me the whole time, and if you get lost call me right away.”

“Sí, Daddy.”

Laura, of course, chose a bright pink jacket and boots with rainbows. Logan told her she could pick out five new books at the bookstore but they ended up buying twelve. She picked up a floppy wolf stuffed animal and refused to put it down, so they got that too. Food runs with Laura ended up with a lot more Pringles and energy drinks than usual, but it hadn’t taken her long to learn she could get Logan to do just about anything if she looked at him and said “Por favor, Daddy? Please?”

“Alright, one more box of Twinkies,” he relented. “But you have to share.”

Besides, Logan justified to himself, she’d had a pretty miserable life so far. If buying Pringles and books and rainbow boots would make her happy, then he’d get her as many as she wanted.

“Your daughter is adorable,” the gray-haired lady behind the counter at the ice cream shop gushed. “How old is she?”

“Uh, eleven? She’s eleven,” Logan said when the lady looked at him suspiciously. He coughed roughly, then rushed to cover his tracks. The last thing they needed was for some old ice cream shop lady to call CPS on them. “Her mom just died a couple months ago. I didn’t even know about her before that, but she’s with me now. I guess I still have a lot to learn.”

“I guess so,” the lady said. She gave them their ice cream but Logan couldn’t shake her suspicious gaze.

“When’s your birthday?” Logan asked as they rode the snowmobile home.

Laura shrugged. “No tengo cumpleaños.”

“Of course you tengo cumpleaños. You’re eleven...diez and uno? Right?”

“Sí.”

“So when will you be twelve? Diez and dos?”

Laura shrugged again.

“Well, we’ll figure it out. Maybe go to the zoo or something fun.”

The next few weeks passed peacefully. Laura had quickly moved on to longer books, but Logan still read to her and a smiling Charles every night. Now that Laura had snow gear, she and Logan could go outside when it wasn’t storming. Laura proved far better than Logan at snowball fights, especially when Charles sat on the porch with a bucket of snow chucking random globs at Logan. They made a small family of snowmen, the professor sacrificing his hat and Logan finding a closet full of scarves, that made Laura smile every time she saw them outside the window.

Logan wasn’t getting much worse, but he also wasn’t getting any better. Charles needed a higher dose; there had been one almost-seizure the week before even though the professor swore he was taking his pills every time. The pharmacy didn’t carry what they needed, and Logan didn’t think they would accept his excuse about why he didn’t have a prescription a second time no matter how much cash he shoved at them. The snow was starting to melt and he knew the rangers who usually lived in the cabin would return soon. He and Laura had returned to the ice cream shop three days ago and the same lady had stared at Logan suspiciously again. He didn’t want to give up the peace they had found the last couple months at Yellowstone, but it was time to move on.

“I’m afraid you’re right,” Charles agreed. “But it was so nice here.”

“Where will we go?” asked Laura.

Logan just shrugged. “A city, ciudad, probably. Somewhere we can get medicina for Charles without people asking questions.”

It took the better part of the next day to pack, since none of them really wanted to leave. Laura had amassed quite the collection of books and toys. Logan decided they needed to pick up a couple duffel bags for her since the backpack wouldn’t cut it. They were even lower on Charles’ medicine than Logan had realized - he had started making Charles take three pills after the last incident. They would need to get more in the next few days.

On their way out of town, they made one last food run. Logan avoided the ice cream shop, sticking instead to the gas station where they had never run into trouble.

“Excuse me, sir?”

Logan turned. A police officer was standing there, and he could see her partner near the door. He swore under his breath, plastering on a smile.

“We just need to ask you some questions. We got a few reports from worried citizens about the girl you’re traveling with.”

“My daughter,” Logan said quickly. “What about her?”

“We’d just like to see some identification, make sure everything’s in order.”

“Well, uh,” Logan stumbled. It’s not like he could show her the Transigen file.

Logan could see Laura and Charles a couple aisles over, Charles holding onto Laura’s wrist. When Laura caught Logan looking her way she shook Charles off and ran over to Logan and the officer. She wrapped her hand around Logan’s wrist and glared at the officer.

The officer leaned down. “Hey, sweetie. We’re going to take you to down to the station with us so we can ask this man some questions.”

“No,” Laura said, holding onto Logan’s wrist tighter. “Quiero quedarme con mi daddy.”

“Laura, uh, her mom is from Mexico. Was. She died.”

The officer just seemed to get more suspicious.

“Sir, if you don’t cooperate-”

Laura growled and her claws slid out from her knuckles. She went to swing at the officer, but Logan caught her wrist.

“Laura. Not okay,” he said, holding her back. Laura growled again.

“Um, sorry,” he said to the officer, who had jumped back and pulled out her gun, staring at them with wide eyes. Her partner had taken his own gun out and was rushing their way. Logan let his own claws come out and tried to show them to the officers as non-threateningly as possible. “My daughter,” he repeated. Hopefully, that would be enough to stop the officer from following them. “We’re just gonna, uh, go now. Laura, Charles, let’s go. Vamanos.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Shit. _Shit_.”

They were barreling down the freeway as fast as the truck would go.

“Logan, we’ll only make things worse if we get pulled over,” Charles said for the fourth time since they’d left Yellowstone.

Logan finally slowed down so they were only ten miles per hour over the speed limit.

“Maybe they won’t say anything?” Charles suggested. “They had to recognize us and people loved the X-Men.”

“ _Loved_ ,” Logan said harshly. “Not too much anymore since half of Westchester ended up in the damn hospital and the X-Men weren’t around to save the day when the world went to hell.”

Charles flinched. Logan gripped the steering wheel tighter.

“Look, Charles, I didn’t mean-I only meant-I shouldn’t have said that. Sorry.”

“You’re right,” Charles whispered. “Don’t apologize for the truth.”

“It was still a pretty shi-messed up thing to say.” Logan glanced at Laura, who was clutching her wolf stuffed animal and staring out the window. “Laura, give the professor another three-better make it four- pills. Cuatro pastillas.” They were going to run out of the pills in a day or two if he kept giving Charles higher doses, but he would deal with that later.

Charles took the pills and didn’t say anything more for a hundred miles. He eventually fell asleep and Laura followed not long after, but Logan kept on driving. They had been on the road for nearly fifteen hours when he finally pulled off at a mostly abandoned RV park an hour outside Omaha.

Laura headed towards the bathroom as soon as the truck came to a stop. Logan got Charles out of the truck then worked on unearthing the tent from the pile of bags in the back.

“I’ll head into the city in the morning and find more medicine,” Logan told Charles. “Once we’ve got it, we can keep moving, figure out what to do next.”

There were less than half a dozen RVs and they were the only tent at the park. A family was gathered around a fire near one of the RVs, so Logan found a spot in the farthest away site. He left Charles by the truck while he finished setting up the tent. When he looked up again, Charles and Laura were both talking to the family by the fire.

“See, we’ve just always been against processed foods,” a woman - the mom, probably - was saying when Logan approached.

“Even our RV is hybrid,” her husband added. “We believe in protecting the world from pollutants and all this genetic modification on the crops. I know they say it makes them grow better, but the poverty rate is twice as high as it was twenty years ago. Seems to me like we’re doing more harm than good.”

“We actually met at a GMO protest,” the wife said fondly. “And the rest is history.”

Charles noticed Logan approach and waved him over. “Sally, John - this is my son, James. James, these are the Byrds - John, Sally, and their lovely children - Alice and Alexander are the twins and little Amy just turned seven.”

Alice and Alexander were about Laura’s age. She had sat down between them and was cautiously munching on something that looked like a fried carrot. Alice was showing Laura some kind of magazine.

“Can you sign my comic book, Mr. Wolverine?” Alice asked, holding it out. “And you too, Mr. Professor?”

Charles looked delighted. Logan shot a glare at Laura.

“No dije nada,” Laura insisted. “Alex told her.”

“Alex, what have we told you?” Sally scolded the boy.

“I know, but they don’t care,” Alex said. “They’re like us.”

“ _Alex_ ,” Sally said again. “It’s still rude, you know better than that.”

“Sorry, Mr. Wolverine,” Alex said, glancing towards Alice and looking rather embarrassed. “Alice said you’re real worried about us telling. But I promise we won’t. We know how to keep a secret.”

“Remarkable!” Charles exclaimed. “Tell me, when did your mutations manifest?”

“Wait, mutations?” Logan said, startled.

John looked between the twins and Logan. “Alex, Alice, why don’t you two take Amy and go show Laura around the RV?”

“We just got the new Mario Kart game and it’s so awesome, you’re going to love it,” Alice gushed to Laura as they disappeared inside the RV. Logan cautiously sat down.

“Alex is a telepath,” John shared, glancing over his shoulder even though they were the only ones still awake. “And Alice is an empath. There was a bit of a disaster at their school when their abilities first showed up three years ago. They - the government, I mean - has been gathering up anyone who seems, you know, _gifted_. Sally used to work on the program before all this, just as tech support, but enough to know what was going on. We think at least a third of mental hospitals in the country right now are actually mutant holding facilities in disguise. We bought the RV the day after a ‘doctor’ showed up at our door and haven’t stopped since.”

Three years ago - that meant this had been going on even before the Westchester incident. A lot longer than he wanted to think about. Things had been getting bad then, and they hadn’t had a new student in years, but they hadn’t realized…

Logan pushed down his rage. They couldn’t do anything now. He coughed roughly into his sleeve and grimaced at the blood in the elbow of his jacket. He wiped it away, but the stain was still there.

“I never knew,” Charles said, pale. “I should have known, I-”

Sally shook her head. “They have their own mutants working for them, grabbing any kids with the X-Gene before their powers even manifest. We only kept the kids off the radar because I worked there, it's why I stayed as long as I did. After the kids they have there grow up, they either train them for special forces, have them hunt other mutants, or put them down. Once they were in the facilities, there was no way you could have found them with the sort of anti-mutant security they have.”

“So you’re saying there are mutants out there, right now, and this has been going on the whole time?” Logan asked. Sally nodded. “There can’t be that many vegans or whatever, so how many mutants are we dealing with here?”

“The anti-mutant corn syrup they pump into everyone only does so much - and that’s not a lot. We think Alice and Alex ended up the way they are because John and I have always been against GMOs, but others, lots of others, slip through the cracks. I doubt the actual mutant birth rate has gone down by more than twenty percent. It’s just a convenient excuse.”

Logan looked at Charles, who was clenching onto the armrests of his wheelchair. “And we can guess who’s tied to all this,” Logan muttered.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” John leaned forward in his seat, “they said everyone died when, you know, Westchester. We’ve heard rumors, thought about heading up to New York at some point to see if any of them are true, but to actually meet the X-Men...”

“Rumors?” Logan asked sharply.

“Sightings,” Sally said, barely above a whisper. “People are saying the X-Men are coming back, that Westchester was just a cover-up. And now you’re here. That can’t be a coincidence.” 

Logan felt very much his age. Charles looked even worse.

“I’m so sorry, but we’re all that’s left,” Charles said. “I wish there was something we could do, but we’re barely even a step ahead of Transigen as we are.”

The kids came rushing out of the RV before the conversation could go any further.

“Can Laura have a sleepover, Mr. Wolverine, pretty please?” Alice asked, running towards the adults. Laura wasn’t far behind.

“Por favor, Daddy?” Laura looked up at Logan. “Please?”

Logan didn’t like the idea of Laura staying with a family they had just met, but she looked so eager he couldn’t say no.

“There’s plenty of room for all of you,” Sally invited. “The kids can all camp out in the loft upstairs and you two can take Alice and Alex’s beds.”

Logan hesitated, but agreed. If he was in the RV as well, he could intervene if anything came their way. Besides, Laura could use some friends - it had been months since she had interacted with anyone her age and he doubted the kids at Transigen were allowed to have playdates. The hug she gave him and bright grin as she crawled up to the loft with the Byrd kids made it all worth it.


	6. Chapter 6

It took Logan half the night to fall asleep, even though he could hardly keep his eyes open after nearly two days without so much as a nap. The idea that there were mutants out there, right now, and he had let himself be tricked along with everyone else kept him awake. He had thought Laura’s situation was unique, that the kids Gabriela had shown in her video were hidden over the border because the government wouldn’t let something like that happen.

Hearing about the rumors that some of the X-Men had survived had felt like a punch in the gut. He had seen their bodies, felt his own mind fall apart as fast as it could heal. Logan had blacked out just as a group of agents stormed inside wearing some sort of armor. He had woken up again three days later in the hospital, where he had been locked in a room. Twice a day, he was injected with some kind of drug that kept him too weak to fight back but kick-started the adamantium poisoning. His only company had been a TV constantly broadcasting about what had happened and an agent who came in to give him the injections and explain that he and Charles were far too dangerous to be let back out into the world. By the time Logan had broken himself and Charles out two months later, he was coughing up blood and had a hard time even walking. Things had only gotten worse since then.

He must have fallen asleep at some point, because he woke up to the sound of the kids giggling in the loft upstairs. It was already bright outside and the clock said it was nearly ten. Logan slowly sat up, his joints creaking. There was a bowl of fruit sitting out on the table. He crinkled his nose and made a note to get McDonald's on his way into the city.

Charles was sitting by the fire with Sally and John again. Amy was lying on her stomach a few yards away from the others. She ignored Logan as he passed her, fixated on something in a bush.

“Sleep well, James?” John called.

Logan just grunted. John chuckled and handed Logan a paper bag and a fork.

“Scrambled eggs in a bag - the kids were out here earlier making them over the fire. Laura wanted to be sure she made an extra set for you and the professor.”

Logan peered suspiciously at the eggs.

“They’re wonderful, she did a great job,” Charles said with a smile, still eating his own eggs.

Logan wasn’t sure if wonderful was the right word; it looked like the bag might have caught on fire at some point. Still, he was hungry and it wasn’t like they would kill him. He avoided the totally scorched parts and they tasted alright.

“I need to head into the city today, pick up some stuff for the professor before we can move on,” Logan said. He was hesitant to leave Laura and Charles alone, but the professor only had two pills left. The last thing they needed was an episode with half a million people around. “I’ll, uh, bring some food over before I leave and if you guys need to go anywhere or anything she and Charles can go hang out at the tent.”

“Don’t worry at all,” Sally said. “We’ll hold down the fort.”

Two hours later, Logan was out nine hundred bucks but had another two month’s worth of pills for Charles. The dealer had been wearing a hat that left her face completely in shadows. Logan was stepping out of the ally, shoving the brown bag in his coat, when he heard the girl trip. When he turned around, she was sprawled on the ground, her hat rolling all the way to Logan’s feet.

“You alright, kid?” he called.

She groaned. Logan picked up her hat and started heading back her way.

“No, no, I’m-don’t come any closer,” the girl said, rolling so her face was covered.

Logan slowed, but the way she yelped when she tried to stand sent him crossing the last few steps to help her up.

“Stay away,” she shouted, finally getting to her feet. Her back was to Logan, but he could tell she was favoring her right leg. Her bag had spilled, sending several bottles of pills rolling. He could see the corner of an X-Men comic peeking out from the bag. He rolled his eyes. Everyone wanted to love the X-Men as a story, but turned right around and hated mutants as soon as they closed the comics. "Stay away," she repeated.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, I’ve just-I’ve got your hat,” Logan said.

The girl shifted, giving Logan a glimpse of her face. Her cheeks were red - bright red - with nerves or embarrassment or something of the sort, he figured. She couldn’t have been more than thirteen. Her blush suddenly turned blue, then gray, then back to red again. When she noticed he had seen, she tensed, ready to dart away.

“Don’t worry, kid, I’m not going to say anything. Trust me, I don’t exactly get along with the government right now. Or ever, if we’re being honest.”

“You could just be saying that." The girl turned to face Logan. Her pupils were changing colors to match her blush. "How do I know you won’t go running to the police as soon as you leave?”

Logan glanced between the X-Men comic and the girl. He held his hand up, sliding his claws out slowly.

The girl’s eyes were wide, flashing from color to color wildly. “You’re Wolverine?”

“Call me Logan. What’s your name?”

“People call me Rainbow. So does this mean all the X-”

Logan was already shaking his head. He had dwelled on the past enough last night. He didn’t think he could handle doing it again. “No. Just me. And the professor, but, well, that’s what the medicine’s for. How old are you, anyway? You look way too young to be in this line of business.”

“I’m older than I look.”

“So...fourteen?”

“Fifteen,” Rainbow said quickly. Logan looked at her. “Well, almost. Next month, according to my file.”

“Your file?”

Rainbow carefully pulled back her sleeve. X-9483 was tattooed on her wrist. Magneto was right, Logan thought hotly. He could barely keep his claws from sliding back out, ready to storm whatever facility the girl had come from right then and there. He knew he wouldn’t make it past the door, with the state he was in, but the thought was still tempting. Rainbow pulled her sleeve back over the numbers.

“My mutation’s pretty useless, really,” she said. “If we haven’t developed any better secondary mutations by the time we turn fifteen, they send us away. And no one comes back. A few of us tried to get out a few months ago - I’m the only one who made it.”

XXX

“Charles, Laura, this is Rainbow. Rainbow, this is the professor-”

Charles’ eyes were shining as he shook Rainbow’s hand. “Things will start looking up now, my dear. You’re safe here.”

“And Laura, my daughter.”

“Hola,” Laura said, looking at Rainbow curiously. “I had them too. Los números. But they kept healing.”

Rainbow pulled down her sleeve self-consciously. Logan pushed down the familiar wave of rage that came back every time he thought too much about what Laura had been through.

“It’s late,” Logan said suddenly. Rainbow was still favoring her leg and looked like she might run if she had to talk any longer. “Rainbow, you can take a shower, get yourself cleaned up. There’s food, normal food if the bag I brought over is still there, on the counter. You can go ahead and take one of the couches for a bed, I’ll just drag the tent over here.”

Rainbow quickly agreed. The Byrds were taking a twilight hike and wouldn’t be back for another hour, so Logan, Charles, and Laura sat by the fire. Laura dragged her chair over so it was touching Logan’s.

“You want s’mores?” Logan offered. He had picked some up on the way into the city and knew the Byrds would never eat the processed food, so it was the only time they could sneak them.

“S’mores?” Laura asked.

Logan grabbed a long branch off the ground and slid a marshmallow onto it. “Just try not to light it on fire. No fuego comida,” he told Laura, setting up another branch for Charles and himself. 

Charles immediately lit his on fire.

“ _Golden brown_ , Charles, _oro marrón_ ,” Logan said. He tried to set a good example for Laura by holding his marshmallow just above the embers near the side of the fire, but she lit hers on fire just a couple minutes later.

“Lo siento,” Laura said when she saw Logan’s exasperated look, but the grin on her face made Logan think she wasn’t sorry at all. He just sighed and handed her chocolate and a graham cracker, showing her how to stack them to make a s’more.

“So did you have fun with the Byrds today? Divertido?”

““Sí, we played Mario Kart y Amy helped a squirrel,” Laura said, practically bouncing in her seat, her hands covered with marshmallow. She started to lick it off. Logan figured a napkin was a battle for another day. “She sat by the bush all morning until the squirrel came out. Lo llamamos Señor Squirrel porque Amy names all the animals she saves.”

“Señor Squirrel, huh?” Logan couldn’t help but chuckle.

Laura nodded. “He ate venero, poison, and it made him sick. Amy saved him.”


	7. Chapter 7

“A _farmer’s market_?” Logan blinked at the Byrds, who had several reusable bags in their hands. “Hard pass. Really.”

Forty-five minutes later, he was arguing over the price of some apples. Sally and John had wandered off to do their shopping and Rainbow had stayed back at the RV with the Byrd kids. 

“Logan, they’re _organic_ ,” Charles said.

“I could buy three boxes of Twinkies for one of these.”

Laura perked up. “Yo quiero Twinkies.”

“See? Laura says so too. Decir también.”

“Lo dice también,” Laura corrected.

“Laura lo dice también,” Logan repeated. “No manzanas,” he told the farmer, who looked rather put-out. “I, uh, appreciate that you’re making food without that modified shi-stuff, though. Thanks.”

“Well, I’m going to buy an apple,” Charles said, handing a five dollar bill to the farmer in exchange for an apple.

“Where’d you even get that?” Logan asked.

“I don’t even get an allowance now?”

“You’ve never gotten an allowance, bub.”

“That’s sad,” Charles said flippantly.

Logan just sighed and decided it didn’t matter. They were staying away from the booths from now on - Charles could argue all he wanted, but Logan was still strong enough to keep him from rolling his wheelchair away.

Charles took a bite of the apple and made a face. “I think we’d better stick to the Twinkies from now on.”

XXX

A storm rolled in a few days later, leading everyone to cram inside the RV. By the time six rolled around, Logan thought he might take his chances in the tent, or just go sit in the truck for a while. There were five kids and only four Mario Kart controllers. He had already shouted for Laura to share six times - and attempted to squeeze into the loft twice to try to get his point across - and told Rainbow the same thing twice as many times. The Byrd kids weren’t much better, and the fights over who got to partner with who led to a whole new set of arguments. The Byrd parents had left for some kind of twenty mile night hike that sounded like a bucket of misery, so Charles and Logan were left to look after the kids.

“Alright, everybody off!” Logan said after Amy started crying. When no one appeared, he repeated himself. “Off. Get down here, we’re having dinner.”

He managed to make something that resembled mac ‘n’ cheese with the homemade noodles and straight-from-the-source cheese sauce he found in a cupboard.

“You know what I think we should do tonight?” Charles asked the kids. They looked at him between bites. “School.”

“Like, X-Men school?” Rainbow asked, her eyes wide.

“Well, I was thinking more along the lines of Literature or Math, but…”

“Pretty please?” Alex said. 

“With a cherry on top?” Alice added.

“Hate to break it to you, but X-Men school at your ages is regular school with other mutants in class,” Logan said. Although how often did the kids get to learn how to control their mutations from someone who could actually help? “But if you all settle down for a while you might be able to convince the professor.”

The kids all swore they would behave; they even washed their dishes and put them away without being asked. They were so excited, all crammed onto one of the couches staring at Charles, that Logan couldn’t help but chuckle.

“The most important lesson for you all to learn is how to control your mutations,” Charles began, already settling back into his professor voice. “You shouldn’t ever be ashamed of your mutation, it’s a part of who you are just as much as the color of your eyes or the size of your feet. But there are people out there who don’t quite understand mutations, so you need to be able to control it at all times. Easier said than done, I know, but that’s why we’re learning. Why don’t we start by describing our mutations and what kind of control we have over them right now? Logan, do you want to give an example?”

Logan coughed. “Um, alright. I have claws and I heal fast. I usually manage to keep my claws from coming out if they don’t need to, so there’s that.”

“It’s so cool that your mutation gave you metal claws!” Alex said.

“That wasn’t a mutation - the adamantium got added a few decades back. Not fun.”

Laura was nodding. “Muy no divertido. I have the same.”

“I don’t see how I can control mine,” Rainbow said, her cheeks and eyes changing to pink. “It’s not like I can turn off my emotions.”

“Have you thought about colored contacts and a lot of foundation and blush?” Charles said after a moment of thought. “We can work on keeping your emotions off your face - literally - as well. Alice, you’re an empath, yes? Perhaps we can come up with an exercise that would help you both.”

Alice nodded. “Alex and I work way better together, since emotions and thoughts are both weird so it takes both of us to figure out what someone means.”

Amy wasn’t sitting on the couch - she had brought a small bird inside while none of them were looking.

“If it starts flying all over, you’re catching it,” Logan told her, trying to push away visions of the bird dive-bombing the RV while they all tried to find cover. The bird didn’t seem to be up for much of anything though - it was huddled in Amy’s hands, chirping miserably.

“She’s better now, see Mr. Wolverine?” Amy hold up the small bird.

It definitely did look perkier. Huh. The bird chose then to swoop out of Amy’s hands and launch itself towards Charles. Charles nearly launched himself out of the wheelchair in attempt to not get a face-full of bird. Logan caught the side of the chair and righted it before Charles went tumbling to the ground, but that put Logan directly in the bird’s path. It smacked into his shoulder and bounced off towards the couch full of kids. Alice and Alex dove to the ground screaming while Rainbow jumped on top of the couch.

“There’s a spider!” Rainbow shouted.

The kids seemed to agree the spider was a much bigger threat than the bird. Alice hopped back onto the couch. Laura had somehow made it to the counter and Alex had gotten on top of the kitchen table. Even Logan couldn't keep himself from jumping back a couple feet. Amy didn’t seem to be scared of the spider at all, since she was crawling towards it on the ground. The bird landed on the ground in front of the spider and ate it, which made Amy start crying and telling ‘Miss Sparrow’ she was a bad girl for eating ‘Mister Legs.’ 

The bird stayed still for a moment and seemed to actually feel bad, if birds had feelings. Amy let out a particularly loud hiccup-sob, sending the bird flying again. It disappeared after that.

“Everyone needs to calm down,” Logan said. Laura was still up on the counter, trying to get on top of the refrigerator, and Amy was still sniffling on the ground. “Amy, your mutation is-what, being the animal-speaker? Think you can get Miss Sparrow back outside?”

Laura giggled from the top of the fridge. She looked a bit like she might fall off and bring the whole refrigerator down with her.

“Laura, get down from there, you’re gonna break your neck.”

“El pájaro is on your head.”

“El pá-” Logan suddenly became aware of the bird perched in his hair. Could he make it to the door without it flying away? He took a few steps and the bird seemed happy to stay where it was. “Someone want to get the door?”

Rainbow carefully stepped off the couch. Logan was a bit worried the bird would fly away as soon as it saw the storm outside, but it stayed on his head until he was safely outside with the door to the RV closed so it couldn’t get back in.

“Alright bird, shoo,” Logan said. He shook his head but the bird stayed put. He hesitantly reached a hand up to his hair, unsure if he really wanted to touch the bird, but the thought of it taking a dump in his hair gave him the courage to poke it. The bird finally flew away and landed in a tree a few feet away. “Sorry bird, but at least you ain’t sick anymore.”

They unanimously decided to hold off on any more “X-Men school” for the day, since Amy was still crying over the spider and Alex got a gash in his leg jumping off the table. Alice started crying too - apparently being empathetic meant she couldn’t handle two people crying without joining in herself. Charles tried to calm her down, but he could only do so much with his telepathy nowadays and patting three crying kids on the back wasn’t quite the same. Laura seemed wary of all the crying going on and so refused to come down from the top of the fridge. It took ten minutes for Logan and Rainbow to find the first aid kit and another twenty to get Alex to calm down enough to clean out the gash.

“Look, if we watch a movie and I let you all have Twinkies as long as you promise to not tell your parents, will you shut up?” Logan finally shouted over the kids.

They agreed to that pretty quick. Alice was excited she knew how to set up the projector so they could all cram on the couches. Charles moved out of his chair and onto the couch and Laura crammed herself between Charles and Logan, claiming an entire box of Twinkies for herself. Amy insisted on sitting on Logan’s other side even though it meant she was halfway on the armrest.

“Sure you don’t want to sit on the other couch?” Logan asked.

Amy shook her head. “I’m too sad to sit near where Mister Legs died.”

Halfway through Lilo and Stitch, Amy had ended up on Logan’s lap, clinging to his hand like it was a stuffed animal, and Laura had fallen asleep his shoulder. Charles had started dozing during the opening scene. The twins and Rainbow looked like they weren’t that far away from falling asleep themselves. Logan debated waking everyone up to brush their teeth, but the thought of the whining that would start if he tried to fight that battle made him decide to skip it. He yawned. Maybe a bit of a nap wasn’t such a bad idea. By the time the movie was over, all of them were passed out on the couches.


	8. Chapter 8

“-appy birthday dear Laura, happy birthday to you!”

Laura blinked at the stack of pancakes with a smiley face on top made out of whipped cream. There were twelve candles stuck precariously in the top pancake. They were all crowded around a picnic table outside the RV and had surprised Laura as soon as she had walked out.

“Make a wish, make a wish!” Alice said.

Laura blew out the candles while everyone clapped. Logan quickly pulled off the candles before they fell towards the dirt. He and Charles had picked up some pink paper plates and a couple balloons shaped like flowers at the store the day before. He gave Laura the top pancake with the smiley face on it along with the bottle of pure maple syrup the Byrds used - they imported it from Canada and refused to use the syrup Logan had bought at the store.

“It’s your heritage, Laura,” Charles said as Laura poured the syrup. “Your father is from Canada, did you know that? It’s why he acts like a mountain man.”

In the week since the incident with Miss Sparrow and Mister Legs, Logan had had more energy than in the past two years combined. He had only coughed once, and that had been after he swallowed a massive bug three nights ago. His limp was practically gone and when he had broken a glass and sliced his hand trying to catch it before it fell, the cut had healed in seconds. When he had taken Rainbow and Laura to the store to find them more decent clothes - the tiny town outside Yellowstone hadn’t had nearly enough for Laura and Rainbow only had one spare shirt - he had managed to carry an entire armload of supplies without breaking a sweat. He hadn’t even cringed when Rainbow tossed three packs of pads on top of the pile, tucked under Logan’s chin, and started telling Laura why she might need them in the future. He’d been dragged along on enough shopping trips with Rogue and Kitty back when they needed a chaperone to leave the school that he was immune. Mostly.

Apparently Charles’ mountain man comment led straight into his gift - he had gotten Laura an awful shirt with the Canadian flag printed across the front. Logan groaned, but Laura ran into the RV to put it on right away. By the time Laura had finished opening all her gifts, she had enough to fill three more duffle bags. To be fair, most of it was from Logan. Laura’s favorite had been a knock-off hoodie Logan had found that looked exactly like the ones back at the Institute. He hadn’t been sure about it at first, but the X-Men were so popular as a comic series now that he figured no one would think anything of it. 

“Can I ride with you, Mr. Wolverine? Please please please?” Amy pulled on Logan’s arm as soon as Laura finished opening her presents.

Logan lifted up his arm with Amy still attached. She tucked her feet up so she was hanging off his forearm and giggled.

“I’d say the birthday girl gets to decide who rides in which car. Laura? Quieres decidir?”

Logan regretted making it an option for the next fifteen minutes while the kids all argued. Once they managed to pile in the two cars to head for the city, the kids crammed in the backseat of the truck and watched YouTube videos for the entire hour.

“If I have to hear one more damn rap battle...” Logan muttered to Charles when they finally stopped.

“I think they’re groovy,” Charles said, hooking his arm around Logan’s shoulder as Logan effortlessly lifted him down into his chair. “Maybe the kids will perform one for us on the drive home.”

There was a bit of a drizzle, which meant the zoo was practically abandoned. That was just fine by Logan. Laura had her new hoodie and he bought Charles an overpriced, neon green poncho that kept getting caught in his wheels until Logan got a hair tie from Rainbow and roped it off so there wasn’t so much flailing material.

The kids ran from exhibit to exhibit, staring at all the animals with wide eyes. Alex seemed to know every animal fact known to man - or at least he was picking them up from the zookeepers and sharing them.

When they reached the elephants and giraffes, Laura hung back.

“Son enormes,” Laura said, backing up so she was at Logan’s side and looking between the giraffes and elephants.

“They’re nice,” Logan said. “Ellos son agradables. Look, that one’s just a baby.”

Laura just shook her head. She held onto Logan’s arm until they had passed the massive animals and found some lions, which she found a lot less intimidating. Thankfully, the rest of the animals they saw were more reasonably sized and Laura went back to bouncing between exhibits with the other kids. They had found some exhibit where the kids could pet goats when they realized Laura was missing.

“It can’t have been Transigen,” Charles insisted. “My powers might be dulled, but I would have noticed if someone from there got that close to us. They all have this...” he made a motion towards his head. “I’d have noticed.”

“Great. So maybe some normal kidnapper got her. Or she fell into a cage and is getting eaten by a damn cheetah,” Logan said, dialing Laura’s number for the third time. She didn’t answer. Laura could probably fight against a cheetah, logically, but what if they all attacked at once? Was her healing enough to keep up with that? He needed to do something, _now_ , but he didn’t know what.

“She probably just wandered off,” John said. “There’s a lot to look at here, she could’ve gotten distracted.”

“She’s in the zoo.” Charles had his fingers pressed against his temples and his eyes scrunched shut. “That’s all I can tell. I’m so sorry, Logan.”

“Stay here,” Logan said, already striding out of the exhibit.

Where would she have gone? Logan wasn’t even sure where to start. Had she wandered off, like John had suggested? Had someone grabbed her? Or was she was unconscious and that was why she wasn’t answering her phone? All he could think to do for now was retrace their steps.

“Have you seen a kid? My daughter? Her name’s Laura and she just turned twelve. Brown hair, about this tall,” Logan asked a lady with a stroller and six kids.

“I haven’t, sorry,” the lady said sympathetically. “Kids have a terrible habit of walking off at the zoo. I’m sure she’s fine. I’ll keep an eye out for her.”

No one Logan asked had seen Laura. He was getting more and more panicked as he searched. Half of him wanted to rip something apart and the other half of him wanted to cry. He was terrified he was too late, that he had lost Laura forever; he had found something that made life worthwhile again and had lost her after only a couple months. The weight of it sent Logan to his knees outside the giraffe exhibit. How were they going to get her back? Charles could barely function and even if he stopped taking his pills he couldn’t find Laura without Cerebro. The thought of returning to the mansion sent a shiver of dread through Logan, but if that was what it took to get Laura back-

“-real nice hoodie you got there - here, hold out your hand like this - do you like the comics?”

“Sí, but they make my daddy sad.”

“That’s too bad. He don’t like mutants?”

“No, he just said things weren’t like that. He got me esta chaqueta for my birthday today.”

“It’s your birthday? How old are you, darlin’?”

“Twelve. We had panca-it licked me!”

“She ain’t gonna hurt you, she just wants her food.”

Logan’s heart skipped a beat. He stumbled to his feet, looking for the source of the voices.

“My daddy says they’re nice, but they’re so big.”

“That’s why we’re feedin' the baby. She ain’t so scary.”

Logan saw Laura down by the exhibit standing next to a zookeeper. The baby giraffe they had seen earlier was licking her hand. He nearly collapsed again in relief.

“Laura?” Logan called. He jumped over the fence and jogged towards her. Laura turned towards Logan sheepishly. As soon as Logan reached her, he wrapped her in a hug. “I thought you got eaten by cheetahs or some shit, kid. Don’t go off like that, you scared me half to death.”

“Lo siento, Daddy. I just wanted to see the giraffes again up close. I came down here y Miss Marie said I could feed el bebé.”

“Thank you so much for keeping her sa- _Rogue_?”

“ _Logan_?”

Before Logan could blink, Rogue had launched herself at him, wrapping him in a hug and sobbing into his shoulder.

“I-I thought y'all had-I thought-”

Logan had to blink tears out of his own eyes. “I know, kid.”

Rogue pulled back, wiping at her nose. “I’m not really a kid anymore.”

Logan had to laugh. “I suppose not, kid.”

“How'd you get out? On the news they said everyone…”

“Yeah. Just got lucky, I guess. Chuck and I-”

“The professor is alright?”

“Well, he survived. No one else was that lucky.”

“I’m real glad you’re okay, at least. I was on that awful mission with Kitty - she’s fine too, she’s back at the house now- in Oregon when the news hit. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone. I didn’t want to believe it, but all our contacts up in New York said it was for real. When the news started sayin’ Kitty and I had shown up dead too - they had some real realistic-like bodies they showed - we thought we’d better lay low.”

“And the zookeeper getup?” Logan raised an eyebrow.

“I know, but we’ve been in town for a few months tryin' to figure out if we can help the mutants they got locked up. Figured I might as well do somethin' while we’re biding our time and my mutation don’t do the animals any harm. It’s nice to not have to wear gloves all the time. I’ve been gettin’ a lot better, though. Last Kitty and I tested it I could touch her for a solid ten minutes before anything started happenin’ and it takes another five before there’s any real damage. Still, it’s nice with the animals ‘cause I don’t have to concentrate.”

Rogue was just about done with her shift, so she changed out of her uniform and left with Logan and Laura. Laura had been reluctant to leave her new giraffe friend but perked up when they got back to the others and she saw the goats.

“Rogue? Is that you?” Charles asked, his voice trembling.

Rogue rushed to give Charles a hug, sniffling again. “Yeah, Professor. It’s me.”

When Rogue pulled away, Charles grabbed her hand and held on tight. “I’m so, so sorry about…”

“I know,” Rogue interrupted. “I know. But we’ve found each other again, and Kitty will be so excited to see y'all. You’ll come over, won’t you? We can try to make a cake for Laura. Kitty and I usually order in, but I bet we can manage somethin'.”

“'Course we will,” Logan said. “We took two cars. And Laura loves those damn comics. Tell her a story or two and she’ll be your new best friend.”

Rogue grinned. "Kitty and I have got plenty of stories to tell about you, for sure."

Rogue didn't want to say too much to Kitty on the phone, since she was pretty sure the government had been tapping conversations.

"We already had to change numbers twice and skip town," Rogue explained once they said goodbye to the Byrds and Rainbow and headed out towards the truck. "Better to just surprise her than risk it."


	9. Chapter 9

Rogue gave Logan directions to a tiny yellow house in the middle of a run-down neighborhood. Chain-link fence surrounded several of the houses and the one white-picket fence someone had bravely installed was covered in graffiti.

“Damn, Marie, you live here?” Logan asked when he stepped out of the car, kicking a beer bottle off the sidewalk. Once he got Charles out of the truck, he tossed their duffle bags in the backseat and threw a blanket over them.

“The rent’s cheap and people don’t ask questions,” Rogue said as they headed towards the door. Logan could hear music blasting from inside. “Besides, people know not to bother us.”

Logan looked at her for a minute. “You have a dog, don’t you?”

Rogue turned bright red. “She’s a black goldendoodle and her name’s Wolverine.”

“Wolverine? You gotta be shi-kidding me,” Logan glanced at Laura.

“Well, I missed you. I needed someone big, hairy, and protective back in my life. Besides, she bit two fingers off a dude who broke in last year. Laura, do you like dogs?”

Laura didn’t have time to answer; as soon as Rogue opened the door, an incredibly fat dog with way too much hair came barreling out and headed straight towards Laura. Laura shot out her claws. Logan pulled her hands above her head so she didn’t slash the dog, who had started licking her face.

“Dogs are nice, ella es agradable,” Logan said.

Laura seemed to realize that pretty fast and let the dog slobber all over her. Rogue crouched down to show Laura how to pet the dog. Laura eagerly copied her. When they walked into the hallway, the dog stayed by Laura’s heels.

“Kitty!” Rogue shouted over the music. “I’m home! And guess what?”

The music was so loud Logan could hardly hear himself think, but he could still make out Kitty singing along - her voice was so off-key it was hard to miss.

“-men! Hallelujah, it’s raining men! Amen!”

They found Kitty dancing in the kitchen, wearing only her bra and underwear, with a massive bowl of mac ‘n’ cheese in the microwave beeping obnoxiously behind her. She was swinging around to open the microwave when she saw them. Kitty yelped, smacking herself in the head with the corner of the microwave door.

“Motherfu-” Kitty saw Laura standing next to the dog and tripped over her word. “-dgenutter.” She leaped for a neon pink apron with the word “wino-saur” printed across the top alongside a dinosaur holding a bottle of booze.

The dog rushed forwards while Kitty was attempting to get the apron over her head. She could apparently smell the mac ‘n’ cheese and could reach the microwave by putting her paws on the counter.

“Wolvy, no!” Rogue and Kitty chorused, both rushing forward.

It was too late - the dog had nudged the bowl straight out of the microwave and sent it hurtling towards the floor. The bowl shattered, mac ‘n’ cheese spilling across the floor. The dog started scarfing it down.

“Five-second rule?” Kitty asked, but she already sounded defeated. “I made two whole boxes so we’d have leftovers. And it was the boxes where you have to add butter and milk and it takes like ten minutes in the microwave, so, like, I actually had to _cook_. I hope you appreciate it, Wolvy.”

The dog looked up at them, panting happily with cheese covering her muzzle.

Kitty stared at her ruined mac ‘n’ cheese for a few more moments before she looked back up at them and gasped so dramatically she started coughing.

“Professor! Logan! Kid I don’t know but you’re rocking the hoodie!”

Kitty started forward to hug them, but realized she was only wearing an apron over her underwear and paused. She rushed towards the wall, phasing right through it, and came back a few seconds later wearing a Captain America robe.

Logan raised an eyebrow.

“I love him, okay? Don’t judge me,” Kitty said, hugging Logan and the professor.

“You’ve met him. He’s a-”

“Giant nerd?” Rogue offered. “You can’t blame him. I’d talk about Star Wars all day too if y'all would let me.”

“That was one time,” Kitty said. “And it was only forty minutes.”

“He’s quite a respectable young man,” Charles said. “Raven and I had his whole collection of comics during the war.”

“See?” Logan said. “If Chuck was reading his comics then you know he’s-”

“An old fart?” Rogue interrupted again. “It’s okay. We love you anyway, Logan.”

“Shut up,” Logan said, heading for the refrigerator. “You got any beer?”

XXX

They made dinosaur chicken nuggets in the microwave since the dog had eaten the last of the mac ‘n’ cheese, and Kitty spent twenty minutes telling Laura the names of all the dinosaurs. Laura piled her plate twice as high as she could eat and Logan saw her sneaking the dog all the T-Rex nuggets under the table. The dog was already so fat he figured a few nuggets wouldn’t make much difference.

After dinner, Rogue pulled a box of Thin Mints out of the back of the freezer, disguised in a box of bacon.

“You said we were out of Girl Scout cookies, you filthy liar! You know I don’t eat bacon,” Kitty said, lunging for the box. 

“‘Cause you’d have eaten them all, don’t deny it,” Rogue said, sidestepping Kitty while opening the box and grabbing a cookie. “And now we get to share.”

Kitty glared at Logan. “I’m counting out the cookies. I still haven’t forgotten that year we bought fifty boxes for everyone to share and you and Scott ate all of them.”

“We only ate twenty boxes,” Logan said. “And we got along great for a month afterward, so it was worth it.”

“It was thirty-seven boxes and you decked him three days later.”

Logan didn’t know how to defend himself against that, so he just swiped a cookie out of Rogue’s hands and headed to the living room.

“Where the hell is your TV?” he shouted. There was a massive gap where the TV should have been, a life-sized cut-out of Thor standing there instead.

“Last person who broke in dropped the TV when Wolvy bit his ankle,” Rogue called back. “But we got a projector rigged up in the backyard and a couch and some beanbags on the porch.”

Rogue and Kitty both agreed that Laura had to watch _Lion King_ right now immediately. Kitty turned on the settings so the audio was in Spanish with English subtitles - Logan hadn’t even known movies could do that. Laura managed to get an entire sleeve of Thin Mints to herself and grabbed two beanbags. She dragged them out so she was right in front of the screen, the dog on the other beanbag right next to her. They let Charles have the couch and he started dozing before the opening song even finished. Kitty and Rogue crammed together on the last beanbag and Logan sat on the steps. There was a massive hole in the middle step and Logan was pretty sure he could see a skunk lurking underneath. He knew if he said anything about it, he would be the one crawling under the house to lure it out, so he just ignored it.

“So wait,” Kitty said once Logan caught them up on what had happened since Westchester. For as much as the girls had insisted they needed to put in _Lion King_ , they hadn’t watched much of it. “Some lab got your DNA and made a test tube baby and you found her somehow and now you, your daughter, and the professor have been road tripping ever since?”

Logan nodded.

Kitty took another swig of her beer. “And I thought we’d had a crazy couple years.” 

“Tell me you’ve got a picture of those snowmen,” Rogue said.

Logan pulled his glasses out of his pocket so he could see his phone screen. His sight had been doing a lot better the last week, but the glasses still helped a lot. He ignored Rogue and Kitty’s giggles and found a picture of Laura and Charles on the porch of the Yellowstone cabin, the snowmen in the background. He handed the phone to Kitty and Rogue. Before he could stop her, Kitty started swiping to see more pictures. She found one Charles had taken of Logan reading _Where the Wild Things Are_ to Laura for what must have been the tenth time.

“Why the hell do you look like Grampa Jim here, dude?” Kitty asked, zooming in on the picture.

“Adamantium poisoning screwing with my healing,” Logan said. “They kickstarted it after Westchester and it’s only been getting worse since. Been feeling a lot better these last few days, though, so I’m hoping it’s not some last minute spike before I kick it.”

“You ain’t gonna die, Logan,” Rogue insisted, leaning in to get a closer look at the picture. “We’ll figure somethin’ out. But it looks like you might’ve fixed it on your own - you look twenty years younger between this picture and the way you look now.”

“Leak your skin routine, dude,” Kitty said. She took a picture of Logan so fast he was left blinking at the flash. When she turned her phone around to show him the picture, Logan had to check to make sure it had been taken right then and not five years ago. The lingering scars that had been taking months to heal were gone and the lines on his face had retreated to only crinkles around his eyes. 

“Holy shi-”

Logan was cut off by a gunshot cracking through the air. Charles startled awake and Laura tensed, turning around to look at Logan with her claws already out. The dog had hopped off the beanbag and was growling, stationed protectively in front of Laura.

“Stay here,” Logan called over his shoulder, already striding around the side of the house to see what was going on. Kitty stayed behind to make sure Laura and Charles didn’t follow, but Rogue, of course, was hot on Logan’s heels.

Half a dozen kids were yelling at each other on the street. One boy was clutching his arm, his hand quickly turning red, and three others were waving guns in the air.

“What the hell are y'all doin’?” Rogue shouted before Logan could intervene. “Jasmine, Jayden, do you really want me to tell your mama what y'all were doin’ outside my house? And Antonio, what did you do to your arm?”

“Miss Marie-” the boy with the bleeding arm, who must have been Antonio, began.

“I don’t want to hear it, Antonio. What’re you gonna do at the zoo while your arm’s healin’? And you need that on your resume to get that scholarship. And Chase, I know your mama would be damn disappointed if you followed your daddy to prison. You can’t do that to her.”

Chase looked like he might cry. Logan crossed his arms and watched as Rogue tore apart those poor kids. She was dialing to call Hailey’s mom, since the girl refused to put her gun down, when Hailey swung her gun towards Rogue and pulled the trigger twice.

Logan shoved Rogue out of the way, knocking her to the ground and wincing when the second bullet burrowed into his ribs. Hailey didn’t even look like she felt bad - she must have been the one to shoot Antonio, Logan decided - but she did look scared when Logan ignored the bullet in his ribs and strode towards her. She backed up a few steps, the gun still raised. Logan reached up to grab it and she sent another shot off, tearing right through his hand. Logan swore under his breath. He grabbed the gun and crushed it in his other hand. It dropped to the ground as a useless hunk of metal. He didn’t have to tell the kids to scram - he kicked the gun towards the sidewalk and when he looked up again, they were gone.

Rogue was still on the ground, huddled over on her side.

“You alright, kid?”

“Just dyin’ a little,” she said, attempting to stumble to her feet. Logan could see where the first bullet had ripped through her shoulder. A puddle of blood had already pooled beneath her.

“Stop trying to stand, Marie,” Logan said. He picked her up and headed towards the door, doing his best to hide his panic. “Just keep pressure on it. You’re gonna be alright.”

He set her on the couch and grabbed a massive towel that looked like a pizza from the bathroom. The bleeding slowed down a bit when he put pressure on it, but he was worried they would have to go to the hospital.

“You know Kitty’s gonna kill you for grabbin’ her pizza towel,” Rogue gritted out.

“Stop talking if it hurts,” Logan said. “And the blood will just look like pepperoni.”

Logan reached to swipe Rogue’s hair out of her eyes and she flinched back.

“Careful,” she said. “I’ve been gettin’ better at controllin’ my mutation but no promises right now.”

Logan paused. How had he not thought of that five minutes ago?

“Take mine,” Logan said. “Got plenty of healing to go around and you can just hold on until your shoulder fixes itself up. The bullet tore right through so we don’t need to go digging.”

“You sure?” Rogue asked.

Logan just grabbed onto Rogue’s hand and squeezed. It took a few moments of Rogue concentrating before her shoulder started to knit back up. It was practically healed before Logan started to feel faint-headed and when Rogue let go, her skin kept on healing until there wasn’t even a scar.

“You feeling alright now?” Logan asked.

“Bummed I got blood all over the couch,” Rogue said. “But damn, that’s a handy mutation. Thanks, Logan.”


	10. Chapter 10

Something woke Logan just as dawn was beginning to break. At first, he thought his body had given up trying to sleep on the ground. Kitty and Rogue had insisted on having a sleepover in the living room and had piled every blanket they could find on the floor. But when he looked over at Laura, who was using the dog as a pillow, her eyes were wide open as well.

Logan motioned for Laura to stay where she was. He stood, careful not to step on anyone, and made his way to the window. The blinds were just barely cracked, but he could see the road lined with black SUVs, blocking their car from driving off in any direction. Dozens of black-clad figures were stepping out of the cars. When Pierce stepped out of one of the SUVs, Logan swore - Transigen must have been closer on their trail than he had thought.

It looked like they were trying to surround the house before they attacked, which meant they only had a few minutes to figure out how to escape. Logan could clear a path if he waited until enough of them had circled around the back. He knew Kitty could hotwire one of the SUVs in less than a minute and Rogue could help Charles out to the car. Logan could hold off the men while they made their getaway and Laura would be able to take care of anyone who got past Logan. If Logan could, he would catch up down the line - but if all he could do was give them twenty minutes to get ahead, he knew Charles, Rogue, and Kitty would take care of Laura.

As Logan turned to tell the others his plan, a shot burst through the window and sailed through Logan’s neck. He swore, his hand pressed against the gushing wound, and tried to not pass out from blood loss until his healing kicked in. Another shot hit him in the back, this one shattering the glass. Logan turned back to the window, pushed the blinds right out of the shutters, and used the bookshelf below the window to boost himself out to the porch. He saw the shooter and sent his claws straight through her gut before she could get another shot off.

“Get out of here, I’ll hold them off,” Logan shouted through the window. He didn’t wait for someone to respond - he knew Laura had heard him and she would wake the others. 

Three soldiers tackled him from behind and Logan shook them off. He cut down another six who were stupid enough to come at him one by one as he made his way towards Pierce. If he could take out Pierce, there was a chance the others would retreat.

A volley of bullets riddled through his chest, the force pushing Logan several feet back. One of the bullets skimmed along the top of Logan’s head, cutting along his skull and turning his vision black along the edges. He still stumbled forward, even when another soldier nearly toppled him before Logan could knock him to the ground.

Pierce’s smirk was too confident, Logan realized a few steps away. He lunged the last few feet between them, reaching out as far as his claws would go. He only managed to scrape Pierce with the edge of his claws before an ear-splitting explosion left his ears ringing and forced Logan to the ground. No matter how much he fought to stand, he couldn't. The explosion had mangled his legs so badly he could see his adamantium-plated kneecap.

Pierce took a too-casual step back, still smirking even as his eyes betrayed his fury that Logan had managed to draw blood.

“Adamantium shrapnel,” Pierce said. “Expensive as hell but I’m not taking any chances. It didn’t have to be like this, Wolverine. No one would’ve bothered you and the old man and that albino mutie of yours if you hadn’t gotten involved. If you’re lucky, you won’t wake up again to see what’s left of the others.”

He had planned this, Logan realized. Pierce had wanted to draw Logan out and knew Logan would come straight for him. With Logan out of the picture, Pierce could take Laura back - would Charles, Rogue, and Kitty be collateral damage or was Pierce planning to take them too? - and Logan would be helpless to do anything about it.

Pierce was already walking away, confident Logan couldn’t get in his way, when another blast rocked the ground and turned Logan’s world black.

xxx

When Logan woke up again, it was to the sound of screams and gunfire. Nothing out of the usual, he thought and surveyed the scene in front of him.

Everywhere he looked, Pierce’s men were bleeding out on the ground or stuck head-first in the dirt or walking around dazed. He saw Pierce, pale and comatose on the asphalt, and two of the kids from the fight the night before standing a little ways off. One of the kids - Jayden, maybe? - had been shot in the side and the other one, who must have been Jasmine, had her gun raised and was shooting at the tires on the SUVs.

“Logan! Get up!” Rogue shouted. She was running towards the truck, pushing Charles ahead of her with the dog in his lap.

Logan saw Kitty in the front seat, the car already started, and found Laura fighting off five of the last soldiers near the door.

One of Pierce’s men went charging towards Laura with an adamantium shrapnel piece held in his hand. If Logan could smell the metal, he knew Laura could too, but another soldier managed to knock her to the ground. Logan struggled to stand, his skin still healing over the exposed muscle and the pieces of adamantium still wedged down to the bone, but he couldn’t get up fast enough.

“Laura!” he shouted, heart racing.

The man racing towards Laura was stopped in his tracks by Wolvie. The dog had somehow jumped off Charles’ lap and made it to Laura’s defense in a blink of an eye. The man was screaming, but Wolvie didn’t let go of his leg until he had fallen to the ground. Laura took out the other soldiers attacking her and patted the dog on the head.

“Vamanos, Daddy,” Laura shouted Logan’s way. Rogue was struggling to get Charles in the truck, but Laura went to help her and they managed. “ _Vamanos_!”

“I can’t,” Logan called back. He couldn’t even crawl to the truck with the shape he was in and he could already hear police cars approaching. “No puedo. Just go, ahora, I’ll catch up to you all later. Te amo, Laura.”

Laura looked at him for another few moments before she got in the car with the others. Logan felt a wave of relief pass over him. He wasn’t sure how they planned to get the truck out of the driveway with the SUV's blocking the road, but he knew the other X-Men well enough to know they would have come up with some kind of plan.

Logan was about to let his vision go black again when he heard the truck rev and run over the bushes in the front yard. He opened his eyes again to see the truck barreling his way, about to run him over. Logan tried to press himself against the ground so the truck didn’t knock his head off, wondering what the hell Kitty was doing. The truck bounced over a bush as it passed over him and smacked Logan in the head so hard he saw stars. Just as the front left tire was about to run Logan over, a hand reached out of the bottom of the truck and hauled Logan up.

Logan found himself crammed between Kitty and Rogue and the dog in the front seat of the truck. He was sitting on the middle divide and the lack of leg space didn’t help his pain level. Laura hauled Logan to the backseat, where he was shoved between her and Charles but at least he was in an actual seat. Kitty turned the truck around so hard it nearly tipped and started right back towards the street. The SUVs were still in the way and a dozen police cars had already arrived, but Kitty didn’t slow down.

“Kitty-” Logan said as they got too close to turn around.

“Shut up. I need to concentrate.”

Logan put out his arms to hold Laura and Charles back in their seats, ignoring how his muscles screamed in protest, right before they hit the SUV. Instead of crashing, the truck phased through the first SUV and every car after that. Kitty got three streets away before they heard the sirens start back up again. She turned sharply again and phased them right through a dozen houses until they hit the freeway.

“Takes thirteen minutes on the road and we just made it in four. We just need to ditch the car and we’ll be golden,” Kitty said, sounding very proud of herself.

“Y'all alright back there?” Rogue turned to ask, trying to shift the dog’s weight as she did but failing to make the dog budge.

Logan just nodded before the black finally filled his vision again. He keeled over onto Laura’s lap, unconscious.


	11. Chapter 11

“Now stop! Max said and sent the wild things off to bed without their supper.”

Logan could tell he was in a motel - the springs of the bed dug into his back and he could smell stale air and wet dog.

“And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all. Then all around from far away from across the world he smelled good things to eat so he gave up being king of where the wild things are.”

Someone was next to him on the bed, their head against his shoulder as they read. _Laura_ , he realized. He wasn’t sure if she was reading from the book or if she had it memorized, but Charles’ lessons must have been helping because she wasn’t stumbling over the words at all. The dog was lying by Logan’s legs, her head resting on his knee.

“But the wild things cried oh please don’t go-”

“-We’ll eat you up we love you so,” Logan said. His voice was sore from disuse, coming out in a sort of raspy whisper. He opened his eyes and made a face at the questionable stains on the motel’s ceiling.

“Daddy!” Laura cried. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. The dog lifted her head and sneezed on Logan’s foot, then fell asleep again. “Estas despierto - you were asleep for a long time.”

Logan’s muscles were still stiff, but he put his arm around Laura. “How long is a long time? Cuánto tiempo?”

“Dos semanas.”

“Two weeks?” Logan sat up and had to blink several times as vertigo hit him. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Estoy bien, I’m okay. Everyone is okay. We are in Nevada.”

“Nevada?” Suddenly, the weird stains on the ceiling made sense.

“Charles and Kitty went to make money,” Laura said. “We got a new car. Marie is getting food.”

Rogue walked in right then, carrying nearly a dozen grocery bags and looking like she was about to drop them. “Laura, would you grab the bread? I thought I could carry in everythin’ in one trip but Logan will kill me if he wakes up and the bread is squished-Logan!”

The bags went crashing to the floor. Logan was pretty sure he heard a few jars burst open - yet another set of strange stains in the motel room. Rogue jumped on the bed and wrapped her arms around Logan and the dog jumped off the bed to go find the spilled food.

“I was so worried, Logan, we all were. Laura’s read her book to you probably fifty times and after the first week we stopped off in the middle of nowhere and Charles stopped taking his pills for a couple days so he could make sure you were still alive in there,” Rogue sniffed.

Logan wasn’t quite sure what to say, so he just patted her on the back. After a few minutes, Rogue remembered the groceries and jumped up to put them away. She left the mess from the broken jars on the floor for the dog and hopped back on the bed on Logan’s other side.

The bed might have been a queen, but there was no way it was made for three people crammed together. Logan couldn’t bring himself to tell either of them to scoot, though, so he just hogged the blanket and dealt with it.

“Hailey ratted us out,” Rogue said, switching on the TV and turning up the volume. “They had her on the news right after it happened, talkin’ about how she figured it out and reported us to the MRA hotline.”

A picture of Rogue in her zoo uniform was on the screen next to one of her wearing her X-Men uniform from several years earlier.

“Why is your hair not white now?” Laura asked Rogue, looking between her and the TV.

“Hair dye,” Rogue said. “I started dyin’ my hair anyway since it’s turnin’ gray and figured the white streaks don’t make it easy to blend in.”

Jasmine was on the screen now, standing next to a woman who must have been her mother. Logan didn’t see Jayden.

“-ant Registration Act was made to protect everyone, but it ain’t protecting no one now,” the mom was saying.

“That’s Jasmine and Jayden’s mama, Miss Ruby,” Rogue told Logan. “She’s been real mad about all this. Jayden’s been in the hospital since he got shot. Someone recorded it and everythin’ and no one’s happy about it.”

“Miss Marie and Miss Kitty are real nice,” Jasmine said once her mom stopped talking. “Miss Marie works at the zoo and she got some of the other kids in the neighborhood internships there and Miss Kitty teaches computer classes at the library. She even got my grandma on Twitter. They’ve done nothin’ but good things for us even when we cause trouble. I dunno why those soldiers came after them. They said they're protectin' humans, but we’re all humans, mutants have just got an extra gene floatin’ around. It don't make them any different. And they don’t care about the rest of us too much since they shot my brother and he's been in the hospital ever since.”

They showed some grainy footage taken from inside the house across the street. Kitty rushed out to the truck, Rogue following close behind pushing Charles with the dog in his lap. The shot panned to Laura, who was fighting several soldiers, and Logan propped up on his elbows, desperately trying to stand, before it cut off.

“It’s been two weeks since the incident and people are still reeling,” the newscaster - a pale woman with black hair and a bright yellow dress - said. “Coming up at 11 - an NBC Special Report investigates the drop in mutant births, the real motivation behind the Mutant Registration Act, and follows up on some very concerning comments made by the apparent leader of this recent attack, Daniel Pierce, about mutant breeding centers.”

Rogue and Laura both fell asleep before the special report came on, but Logan couldn’t close his eyes. He had already known most of what was on the report, but the newscasters actually seemed to be on their side. Even before the Westchester Incident, people had liked the idea of the X-Men better than the X-Men themselves. The dog jumped back onto the bed and fell back asleep on Logan’s legs.

“What I want to know, Jessica, is if the mutants attacked in Omaha really were Rogue, Shadowcat, Wolverine, and Professor Xavier - why were images of their bodies released after the Westchester Incident? We were led to believe all the X-Men had died, but if these four survived, what does that mean for the rest of the X-Men?”

“We’re all wondering about that, Brad. And the biggest mystery of all - who was the girl with them? Wolverine Junior? I wasn’t the only one who saw those claws, right?”

“Well, Jessica, we’ll have to look into that more tomorrow. Signing off, this is NBC news.”


	12. Chapter 12

“A minivan? Really?” Logan stared at the white minivan as the side door slid open. They had traded the truck for this?

“We’ll blend in - everyone has white minivans if they have kids,” Kitty said, starting towards the driver’s seat.

“Not so fast,” Logan said and steered her to the back seat. He left the others to fight over shotgun while he started the car.

It took them another twenty minutes before they were finally on the road. The dog had ended up snagging the passenger seat while everyone was squabbling over it and was leaning out the window, panting in the wind.

“We need to keep goin’ west,” Rogue said from the backseat.

“What’s west?” Logan asked.

“Friends,” she said.

XXXXX

“Do you know how much work I’ve had to do covering your asses for three weeks? Did it ever occur to you to try to disguise yourselves? At all? Rogue’s the only one who even tried - gold star, by the way - but the rest of you are just wandering around asking for people to want your autograph. And you do realize McDonald's has security cameras, right? I know you’re ancient, Howlett, but come on. This is just pathetic. Like, Steve-right-out-of-the-ice pathetic.”

“This is what you meant by friends?” Logan growled at Rogue. 

Rogue shrugged apologetically and hugged Stark, who looked at Logan smugly over Rogue’s shoulder. Logan growled again.

“I know, Tony,” Kitty said when she hugged Stark. “It’s sad, really, but you know what they say about old dogs. No offensive, Wolvie.”

“Watch it, half-pint. I managed this long.”

“You’re welcome,” Stark said pointedly.

Logan pushed past him and headed for the mini bar in the living room.

“Not so fast, big guy,” Stark said. “We’re not hiding out in my second-best California house for nothing. We’ve got a SHIELD jet incoming with Eyepatch, Mr. Star Spangled, Dr. Big-and-Green, Scary Spider Lady, and Smaller Less-Scary More-Awesome I’m-so-proud-of-him Spider Kid.”

“You know Peter’s twenty-seven, right?” Rogue rolled her eyes. “You’re just as bad as Logan, honestly. We’re not really kids anymore.”

“Yes you are,” Logan and Stark said at the same time.

“Jinx! Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten you owe me hard liquor!”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Laura, don’t listen to Iron Maiden over there. He’s a bad influence.”

“ _I’m_ a bad influence?” Stark threw his hand over his heart.

“Yes,” Charles cut in. “You both are. I haven’t heard this much bickering in years. It’s all very immature.”

“No disrespect, Professor, but we’ve all been around you and Magneto. You don’t exactly have the high ground when it comes to petty fights,” Kitty said.

Charles seemed to be very glad to not to have to respond to that as they heard the thump of a jet arriving from the roof.

“Cavalry’s here,” Stark said, bounding towards the door to the roof. “Peter! How’s MJ? You need to call more-”

The door slammed shut behind him and Logan rounded on Kitty and Rogue.

Rogue started talking before Logan could open his mouth.

“I know, I know, but we can trust ‘em probably. We worked with them for years. They spent years speakin’ out against the Mutant Registration Act. And we don’t really have another choice - we can’t stay on the run for the rest of our lives, one step ahead of those people until we get killed.”

Logan shook his head. “This is only going to get us killed faster. Where was SHIELD when they started coming for mutants? They just stood back and-”

“What more were they going to do?” Kitty asked. “Fight against the entire government? Get superheroes lumped in with mutants so the government comes for them too? Get wiped out alongside us?”

Logan wanted to say yes, of course they should have, but instead they just abandoned us. Instead, he thought about the bodies of children collapsed around the school because of a mutant, not the government, and didn’t say anything at all. Charles must have picked up on some of his thoughts, though, and the stricken expression on the professor’s face made Logan slump his shoulders in defeat.

“Laura doesn’t deserve to grow up like this,” Charles said quietly. “If they’re willing to help, we should take it.”

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” Logan said, already walking towards the basement where he knew Stark had at least three motorcycles. “I’ll see what they have to say for themselves, but not right now.”

“Are you mad at me?” Rogue called after him, sounding a lot less confident than she had a minute ago.

Logan paused. “I’m not mad at you, or them. I’m just…I promised I’d take care of you, all of you, and I...”

Rogue studied him for a moment, then nodded. “I know.”

Laura followed Logan down to the garage. He reluctantly grabbed a helmet from the wall - he supposed he had to be a good influence even if he was upset. Laura picked up a small pink helmet. Logan had no clue why Stark had it, except that Stark seemed to have everything. She climbed on one of the motorcycles before Logan had even strapped his helmet on.

“Can I come? Por favor?” Laura asked.

“‘Course you can. Tú puedes,” Logan said. He didn’t feel like company, but he wasn’t going to tell her no.

He managed to get them out of the long driveway and to the freeway before Stark stopped them, which Logan thought was a bit impressive. Laura held onto him and didn’t say anything, so he tried to find the best views to drive along. Just because he was going fast to burn off some steam didn’t mean Laura couldn’t sightsee.

They had been driving for an hour when Laura tugged on Logan’s sleeve.

“Hay tanta agua. There is so much water,” Laura called over the wind.

Logan glanced over and saw the ocean. He glanced back at Laura, who was staring at it with wide eyes.

“It’s the ocean,” Logan said. “You want to go see it? Quieres ver?”

Laura nodded eagerly, so Logan took the next exit. The beach he found was empty, probably because it was covered with rocks and he had to take the motorcycle on a dirt bike trail through some trees to get there.

Logan stepped towards the water, but Laura hung back.

“Es seguro? Is it safe?” she asked, eyeing the waves suspiciously.

“I’ll keep you safe,” Logan promised. He held out his hand and after a moment, Laura grabbed onto it and held as tight as she could.

They waded out up to Laura’s knees. She stared at the water, transfixed. A small wave rolled in and pushed back out, leaving a small fish flapping on the sand.

“Fish need - necesitan aqua,” Logan said. He picked up the fish with his other hand and tossed it back out into the water.

The next wave that rolled in was a lot bigger and soaked Laura up to her shoulders. She tugged on Logan’s hand so hard that he fell into the water, taking Laura down with him. She scrambled to get her head above the water and it receded out a moment later. As soon as she could stand, she dragged Logan back to the line of trees.

“You’re so wet,” Logan couldn’t help but chuckle. Laura was completely drenched and her hair was full of sand.

It took Laura a second, but she started laughing too. She didn’t want to go back to the water after that, so they sat on the beach and watched as the sun set. Just as it was getting dark, Laura darted out towards the ocean again.

“Laura, what are you doing?” Logan shouted after her, rushing to his feet. Laura wasn’t exactly a swimmer and the tide was probably strong enough to carry her away if she went out too far, even with an adamantium skeleton.

Laura was grabbing something from the ground a few feet away from the water line - a fish, Logan realized. It was flapping in her hands, trying to get away, but she managed to lift it up and toss it back into the ocean.

“Fish need water,” she told Logan.


End file.
